Cogent Education

Active and Transformative Learning in Higher Education with Artificial Intelligence

Higher education is entering a new era where Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping how students learn, how faculty teach, and how institutions operate. AI-driven tools such as adaptive learning platforms, intelligent tutoring systems, automated assessment, and predictive analytics are becoming integral to the student experience. At the same time, the movement toward active and transformative learning emphasizes participation, collaboration, critical thinking, and personal growth. Bringing these two trends together, this Article Collection explores how AI can support, challenge, or redefine active and transformative pedagogies in higher education. The Collection seeks to highlight innovative practices and critical reflections on how institutions, educators, and students are navigating the interplay between human-centered education and machine intelligence in order to design learning experiences that are engaging, ethical, inclusive, and future-ready.

The convergence of AI with transformative learning raises urgent questions for global higher education. While AI promises to personalize education, enhance student engagement, and improve efficiency, it also creates tensions around academic integrity, equity, ethics, and the very purpose of higher learning. Universities are expected not only to prepare graduates with professional and technical competencies but also to cultivate creativity, adaptability, social responsibility, and lifelong learning mindsets. In times of rapid technological change, higher education must strike a balance between leveraging AI’s capabilities and safeguarding human values such as critical inquiry, collaboration, and intellectual autonomy. By focusing on active and transformative learning, this Collection addresses a crucial gap: how can higher education ensure that AI-driven innovation enhances—not replaces—the transformative mission of universities?

This Article Collection invites empirical research, theoretical contributions, systematic reviews, policy analyses, and case studies that examine the intersection of AI, active learning, and transformative education in higher education contexts worldwide. Possible themes include, but are not limited to:

• AI-enabled tools for active and experiential learning.
• Education leadership and emotional intelligence
• Mental health and well-being in education
• Education policy and practice
• Education and UN’s SDGs
• Green education
• Faculty development and AI literacy for transformative pedagogies.
• Inclusive and equitable approaches to AI-supported education.
• Women, STEM and new emerging technologies
• Global and comparative perspectives on transformative learning with AI.

The Collection welcomes interdisciplinary submissions from education, psychology, technology, and policy fields, with a focus on practical impact and theoretical advancement.

5 Keywords

1. Active Learning
2. Transformative Education
3. Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education
4. Digital Pedagogy
5. Academic Integrity

­­All manuscripts submitted to this Article Collection will undergo a full peer-review; the Guest Advisor for this Collection will not be handling the manuscripts (unless they are an Editorial Board member).

Please review the journal scope and author submission instructions prior to submitting a manuscript.

The deadline for submitting manuscripts is 15 June 2026.

Please contact Kristen Brida at [email protected] with any queries and discount codes regarding this Article Collection.

Please be sure to select the appropriate Article Collection from the drop-down menu in the submission system.

Please select Higher Education from the list of available sections during submission. Failure to select the appropriate Article Collection or Section name can result in delays.

About the Guest Advisors

Dr. Miltiadis D. Lytras is a Professor at The American College of Greece and Visiting Researcher at Effat University. He is internationally recognized for his work on artificial intelligence in education, digital transformation, and knowledge management. He has published more than 150 Scopus/WoS indexed articles and co-edited over 100 books with major publishers including Elsevier, Emerald, and Springer. Dr. Lytras has extensive editorial experience, having led more than 130 special issues in top journals. He is listed among the World’s Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University, and his research has significantly shaped debates on active and transformative learning in higher education.

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Dr. Patricia Ordóñez de Pablos is full professor in the Department of Business Administration in the Faculty of Economics and Business at The University of Oviedo (Spain).

Her teaching and research interests focus on the areas of business, digital economy, education, green economy and information technologies. She has a special interest in Asian countries like Bhutan, China and Myanmar.

She serves as Editor in Chief of Journal of Science and Technology Policy Management (JSTPM), Editor in Chief of International Journal of Asian Business and Information Management (IJABIM), and Editor in Chief of International Journal of Learning and Intellectual Capital (IJLIC).

In 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 she was named on “Stanford University’s Ranking of the World Scientists: World’s Top 2% Scientists".

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Conflict of Interest Disclosure

The Guest Advisors do not have any Conflicts of Interest to disclose.